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Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Seminar - T. S. Wiley Protocol

Posted Mar 29 2013 12:27pm

Two Days Back to Earth: Bioidentical Hormone Seminar

Author: Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD

AMD-A-43224-98 (January 2013)

CUPERTINO, Calif – The conference started out with a bang, the Big Bang to be precise. As the attendees all marveled during the 40-minute presentation at the Fujitsu planetarium, they embarked on a journey to better understanding the biorhythms of human hormones. The first lecture described the link between natural biorhythms in our universe, from intergalactic quasars to moon rotations around our planet. This is the basis of Teresa S. Wiley’s theories on natural bio-rhythmic bio-identical hormone replacement. She has been a proponent of this type of replacement for hormonal burnout in aging adults for over a decade. This conference entitled “Two Days Back to Earth” was her brainchild and a way to present her research to practitioners. Her ideas and postulations are a bit extreme and depart quite radically from current traditional medicine’s clinical practices guidelines on hormone replacement therapy (HRT). For example, the amounts of bio-identical hormone therapy (bHRT) doses are rather high and the serum level goals to be achieved can typically be four-fold the levels current guidelines target. The cyclical nature of her protocol is also a departure from the standard static low dose replacement usually prescribed today. The patented Wiley Protocol ® can be more demanding and require more attention from those being prescribed this regimen. This two day event took place in Cupertino, California and attracted almost fifty practitioners including physicians and doctors of naturopathy, along with mid-level nurse practitioners and a number of compounding pharmacists. Part of the course material included a 300 page syllabus and detailed protocol manual complete with scientific references backing up many of Wiley’s claims. T.S.Wiley’s book “Sex, Lies and Menopause”(Harper Collins, 2003) was also included with the course material.

Wiley was accompanied by a couple of physicians. Dr. Julie Taguchi, an oncologist practicing in California who discussed bHRT effects on cancer patients and focused on cancer risk, and Dr. Courtney P. Ridley a practicing Obstetrician/Gynecologist from Texas who presented some compelling data on her near 1200 patients on the protocol over the past eight years. In the final day Dr. Bob Mathis a family practitioner gave his insights on the protocols for cortisol and thyroid hormones. The conference was quite informative, covered much endocrinology territory in a short period of time.

T. S. Wiley is a controversial figure as she has been a target by mainstream medicine for her radical ideas and aggressive hormone replacement doses which goes against current medical association and organizational practice guidelines. Adding to the controversy is her background. While neither a medical practitioner nor a credentialed researcher, she does claims to have a background in anthropology. Despite her lack of credentials one can take the stance of looking at many who have changed the world without institutional nods and framed certificates on their walls. Time will be the ultimate testament to whether her protocols are in fact the better way to treat postmenopausal women and men with low testosterone.

Men and women who attain the age of 50 years plus are doomed to suffer from significant hormone imbalance with ovarian and testicular failure due to genetic and evolutionary limitations. Humans just haven’t had the time to evolve or adapt since we essentially doubled our life expectancy in the past 100 years. Therefore, to maintain health and viability as humans in our fifth to eighth decade of life, we need to supplement our hormones. Wiley contends we need to supplement with pulsatile doses which follow a certain biological rhythm found in the universe. Hence, she advises estrogen doses that peek during certain lunar days coinciding with a woman’s typical 28-day menstrual cycle. For men Testosterone replacement follows an eight day pattern associated with her understanding that our Sun rotates by a quarter every eight days. While this is a fascinating theory and much of the endocrinology and physiology the conference highlighted seems to support such notions, there is a paucity of peer-reviewed double blinded published studies to support wholesale use of this particular protocol. The hope is that with enough practitioners prescribe this method of replacement a body of data will emerge in the near future, that can be evaluated to determine efficacy and safety.

There has been a recent explosion of bHRT courses, protocols and media exposure. Susan Summer’s newest book and web site ForeverHealth ® is dedicated to bHRT, but physicians must pay hefty sums to join her network. Along with T.S. Wiley’s ongoing efforts to regulate and standardize topical hormone compounding and promote bHRT via telehealth modalities, there are Dr. Sara Gottfried author of “The Hormone Cure”, who is promoting her book and network of hormone evangelists and endocrinologist Dr. Thierry Hertoghe and his protocols and books. Dr. Gottfried is a Harvard trained physician who is not inconspicuous about dropping the “H-bomb”, while Hertoghe is well known among the Anti-Aging circles of those prescribing human growth hormone as a longevity remedy. Physicians who already practice bHRT or those undereducated or skeptical about its uses should educate themselves in all the alternatives by attending the multitude of educational offerings. The next Wiley Protocol ® seminar is to be held sometime in May in Chapel Hill, NC. Visit www.wileyprotocolsystems.com for more information.